Reading Time WP plugin integration into my blog

Reading time wordpress plugin is one of the most useful wordpress plugins that I tried recently. This plugin displays the approximate reading time of a blog article. The reader knows the time to read the article without actually reading it. The articles published in medium has a reading time displayed. This article explains the steps to include the same in a wordpress blog and my integration experience.

Reading time wordpress plugin

The Reading time WP plugin displays the estimated time to read for a wordpress blog post. I got the reading time display for an article inspiration from the medium blog. When I came to know about the reading time display concept from medium, I always wanted to include a similar concept in my wordpress blog. I was searching around the internet for the past 2 days for a solution. Finally, I came to know about this wonderful wordpress plugin from ShoutmeLoud.

__How does this work

Reading time WP plugin works by the assumption that the current user has a certain reading speed. Based on this assumed speed, the plugin calculates the reading time based on the number of words in the article. The display of the reading time and the placement can be customized under the settings page. The settings page will come under the settings menu in wordpress dashboard. The settings page is activated after the plugin is installed.

__Installing the plugin

Installing the plugin is completely straightforward. Search for Reading time WP under the plugins -> add new page. This will list out the plugin. Click on the install link of the plugin to install it. Activate the plugin by clicking on the Activate button. The configuration page can be accessed under the settings menu after plugin activation. The configure page is where the plugin can be configured.

Reading time WP – config page

__Configuring the plugin

The configuration page is where you can configure the app completely. The configurable options are shown below

Reading label

Content displayed after Reading time (singular|plural)

User Reading speed assumption (Default to be 300 words per minute)

Display placement position (predefined – top, bottom of post)

Short code for displaying the reading time on a custom location

The instructions to modify the settings are straightforward. The user can do it directly

__Plugin shortCodes

The plugin provides various short-codes for displaying the reading time in a custom position in a post. The short-codes provided by the reading time WP plugin are given below.

The above short code has options for singular and plural minutes display and label options

[rt_reading_time]

The above short code has options to display only the reading time

After updating the options, the plugin displays the reading time for a post at the user specified location. I have left the display format in my website as follows. I did some custom styling with the color to match my website color theme.

Reading time WP – display

Advantages of displaying reading time

Displaying the reading time for an article has some advantages. The reader knows the time to read without reading the article. The user can decide what to do with the article based on the time.

Let’s start integrating this WP plugin and give our users a different experiences. Please share your experience about this wordpress plugin in the comments section below.